4 Ways to Achieve a Successful Influencer Marketing Strategy

The term “influencer marketing” may be new to you and yet it’s something we are exposed to every day!

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing includes any practice aimed at creating a type of collaboration between a brand and an influencer in order to promote a product or a service.

Since the rise of social networks, influencer marketing has become a booming market. According to InfluencerMarketingHub, the influencer marketing market has grown from $1.7 billion dollars in 2016 to $6.5 billion in 2019. By 2020, it has been estimated that the market has exceeded 20 billion. The main goal of influencer marketing is to use the notoriety of both parties to boost their visibility and sales.

There are several methods to create an effective and powerful influencer marketing strategy. Here are the 4 most popular ones!

Product placement

Product placement is most certainly the most famous and used method. It is a partnership between a content creator and a brand. This method can be seen mostly on YouTube, but also on Instagram.

All types of content can include product placement: a photo, a music video, a video or a blog post. The goal here is to pay the influencer to put the product forward in the content they create.

Whether it is to generate sales or improve the company’s reputation, the company defines the objectives beforehand. The company then gives a brief to the selected influencer in order to agree to the expectations of both parties.

After the brief has been accepted, both parties know what is expected of them. But how do you verify the impact of this campaign? If you are a social network user, you surely know about the infamous “promo codes”. That is how the company measures the impact of their partnerships with influencers. Each influencer receives a personalized promo code to share with their audience via the creative content of their choice. When the code is used, the information is systematically entered into the company’s analysis systems, which can then measure the number of sales. The number of clicks, the engagement rate and the number of mentions are also KPIs to analyze so as to determine whether or not the campaign was successful.

The influencer capsule collection

The term “capsule collection” has been mainly used in the fashion and beauty industries up until now. The influencer capsule collection however refers to a collaboration between a brand and a person who has a community of subscribers in order to create a limited collection of items or products.

For the brand, this method allows an increase in sales and traffic in their store (physical or online), but it also helps them gain popularity within the influencer’s community and therefore, reach a different audience. It also can help to improve the brand image, giving the brand a young and dynamic image, often times closer to its public. For the influencer, the goal is to increase their popularity and, obviously, obtain a percentage of the earnings.

This type of influencer marketing has been proven time and time again. In general, it only takes a few hours after the launch before the collection is out of stock!

The buzzkit

This is a well-known and widely used technique, especially in the beauty industry. It consists of a package sent by a brand to several influencers for promotional purposes, for example, when a new product is launched. These packages can include all kinds of products: samples, promotional items, gifts or even the brand new exclusive collection.

The aim here is to boost the visibility of the products and brand in order to create word of mouth around the product and increase sales. Usually when influencers receive a buzzkit they follow it up with an unboxing, which is another method of influencer marketing, via a video or an article with photographs. For example, the YouTube platform is full of unboxing videos, live or pre-recorded, allowing the influencer’s community to discover the products at the same time and share their reaction and feeling. The reactions are therefore more authentic which makes Internet users feel closer to the influencer and the brand as well.

The takeover

The takeover is a practice of influencer marketing that consists in handing over the control of a brand’s account to an influencer for a pre-defined period of time on social networks, especially TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram. Whether it’s to talk about the brand itself, a collection, a product or a service. The takeover is a practice that is increasingly being used by brands. The goal is to arouse the curiosity of Internet users, widen the brand’s audience, improve its image and gain followers!

Launching an influencer marketing campaign requires quite a lot of planning beforehand. It’s necessary to take the time to define your objectives, find the most suitable influencer for your message and establish a relationship of trust before jumping into the deep end! Afterwards, don’t forget to analyze the campaign’s performance in order to be able to readjust your plan in case of a misstep.